THE Maharashtra Urban Co-Operative Banks Federation Ltd has alleged that commercial banks are not allowing their cash transactions and “lowering their status” before the customers. In a press statement, Federation chairman Vidyadhar Anaskar alleged that the commercial banks were “trying to defame” the cooperative bank sector. The accounts of cooperative banks are with commercial banks, and they are entirely dependent on commercial banks to provide cash exchange facility to customers, said Anaskar.

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“The cooperative banks have all their money in commercial banks, but despite that, cooperative banks are being treated inappropriately by commercial banks… this is being done to show that there is a problem in cooperative banks,” he said.

“The Federation condemns the commercial banks for the bad treatment of cooperative banks and would raise the issue with the RBI and the Indian Banks Association,” said Anaskar.

“… The commercial banks allowed only Rs 10,000 cash for cooperative banks, telling them that they were normal account holders. This situation created problems for cooperative banks and its customers, who were sent back due to lack of availability of cash. This took place despite the RBI issuing directions to commercial banks to supply notes to cooperative banks for their operations,” he said.

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Anaskar said commercial banks have demanded RBI’s written directions from the cooperative banks and refused to pay a large amount. While the RBI has issued a written clarification — that the limit of transaction should not be applied to cooperative banks — the commercial banks were not following its directives, said Anaskar.

He said commercial banks were also refusing to accept cash deposits in scrapped notes.